Don't wait until wrinkles and lines pop out all over my brow, show me now!

Friday Night really was Music Night this week, as we braved the elements and trolled off to the imperious environs of Alexandra Palace for BBC Radio 3's Julie Andrews at 90: A Celebration concert. Over the years, we have been fortunate to get to see loads of these recordings of the world's longest-running live orchestral music radio programme, and they're always of the highest quality.

This was no exception.

Core to the whole thing was the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted as ever by Richard Balcombe - they are one of the finest orchestras of their kind and, keeping up the tradition of BBC's historic involvement with Ally Pally, it's been announced that they're now the first "associate orchestra" based at the venue. It's always fascinating to watch an orchestra at work, and this lot worked like clockwork.

Our singers, too, were a top-notch trio - Katie Birtill, Kelly Mathieson and Graham Bickley - veterans of the West End stage and as orchestral soloists, all. Our host was the mellifluous Radio 3 veteran presenter Petroc Trelawny [it's always good to see a "national treasure" in the flesh for the first time].

And of the show itself? We had a cornucopia of music and songs from just about everything Dame Julie was ever involved in - including My Fair Lady, The Boyfriend, The King & I, Star!, Mary Poppins, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Victor, Victoria and - it goes without saying - The Sound Of Music.

Oh, how we loved it! Indeed, the hills were alive with the sound of her music (well, Muswell Hill, anyway)! No videos are available of the evening itself (naturally), but here are two brief snippets I managed to grab from their rehearsals:

However, let's finish up with a song that was brilliantly done by Miss Mathieson on Friday, and one that featured in two consecutive nights of musical entertainment this weekend:

Julie Andrews - Show Me [My Fair Lady]

Don't talk of stars burning above; If you're in love,
Show me!

Tell me no dreams
Filled with desire. If you're on fire,
Show me!

Here we are together in the middle of the night!
Don't talk of spring! Just hold me tight!
Anyone who's ever been in love'll tell you that
This is no time for a chat!

Haven't your lips
Longed for my touch? Don't say how much,
Show me! Show me!

Don't talk of love lasting through time.
Make me no undying vow. Show me now!

Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme!
Don't waste my time, Show me!

Don't talk of June, Don't talk of fall!
Don't talk at all! Show me!

Never do I ever want to hear another word.
There isn't one I haven't heard.
Here we are together in what ought to be a dream;
Say one more word and I'll scream!

Haven't your arms hungered for mine?
Please don't "expl'ine," Show me! Show me!

Don't wait until wrinkles and lines
Pop out all over my brow,
Show me now!

Love it...

---

...and speaking of two consecutive nights of musical entertainment - our busy weekend continued on Saturday as we settled down in front of the telly, Union Jack flags in hand, to watch The Last Night of the Proms..!

More on that tomorrow, no doubt...

Wet totty, music, mud and old boozers

Gratuitous totty shot? As if. Happy 30th birthday today to Ansel Elgort [whose name actually sounds like an anagram]!

Another "snippets" post today, dear reader...

• Good news: One of our favourite shows on radio Friday Night is Music Night - the world's longest-running live orchestral music radio programme - [which was unceremoniously moved to Sundays, and then surreptitiously killed-off last November by the gnomes at BBC Radio 2] will be revived by Auntie Beeb's classical station Radio 3 this April! I cannot wait...
• Dancing in a muddy field news: Dua Lipa (yawn), Coldplay (even bigger yawn!) and SZA (nope, not a clue; sounds like an energy drink) have been announced as headliners at this year's Glastonbury Festival. Even the news that Shania Twain will be taking the closing top-of-the bill "Legends" slot, or the fact that Cyndi Lauper's there as well (for the first time), would ever tempt me to go - even if the tickets hadn't sold-out completely within half an hour of being put on sale last Autumn!
• More muck news: The UK is apparently in the middle of National Compost Week, which is literally a load of old crap. Recycled by worms, of course.
• More good news: Our "house band" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox are back in the UK this May, and - thanks to a Ticketmaster voucher card from Baby Steve and Houseboy Alex for my 60th last year - Madam Arcati and I have booked to go and see them live at the prestigious London Palladium!
• And, finally: Maverick Soho members' club The Groucho [named after the Groucho Marx quote: “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member”], second home of the likes of Terry Pratchett, Francis Bacon, Jeffrey Bernard, Jarvis Cocker, Anthony Bourdain, Lily Allen, Melvyn Bragg, Blur’s Alex James, Rachel Weisz, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Robbie Coltrane, Nick Grimshaw, Stephen Fry, Julie Burchill and even Harry Styles - which we were honoured to visit way back in 2009 - has opened its very first "out-of-town" outpost near Wakefield in Yorkshire!

And the weather? More Spring-like than it has been in ages...

From Ally Pally to Aiden Turner

We had another wonderful (free) evening's entertainment last night, courtesy of the BBC - having again landed audience tickets for Friday Night is Music Night [our fourth this year; we were at the Queen's Birthday celebration concert, an evening of Cy Coleman's music and a birthday tribute to conductor Carl Davis CBE, which I may write about at a later stage], this time at its "spiritual home" The Mermaid Theatre in Blackfriars.


The Mermaid Theatre in the 1960s

This time, it was a rather spectacular celebration of the 80th anniversary of the first regular television service in the UK, hosted by the acerbic anchor-man of Radio 4's morning current affairs Today programme, Mr John Humphrys. From the BBC's own blurb for the programme (to be broadcast this Friday):

It all started on Monday, 2nd November 1936 from a make-shift studio in the south east wing of Alexandra Palace in North London; "Ally Pally" as it was and still is known today. It wasn't a new invention by any means - experiments had been on going around the world since the 1850s to perfect and broadcast television pictures. In this country the work of John Logie Baird pushed the way forward and this November day was momentous as it marked the start of the world's first regular television service: BBC Television. This title was to last until the arrival of the BBC's second television channel in 1964 and this first channel was re-named BBC One.

That first schedule featured a variety show with singer Adele Dixon, comedians Buck and Bubbles, Chinese jugglers the Lai Founs and the BBC Television Orchestra. There was also a new magazine programme Picture Page featuring switchboard girl Joan Miller. The broadcasts ran for just four hours a day. Small fare for the 15 thousand television sets receiving the pictures at the time. But there was much to look forward to - Tuesday's schedule offered a "display of Champion Alsatians" from the Metropolitan and Essex Canine Society Show, and Hollywood stars Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyons.

Since then, of course, there's been a media revolution - you can catch up, download and watch online. How old fashioned it seems to think that viewers made an appointment to watch our schedules. But the last 80 years produced a wealth of comedy, drama, music, documentary, sport, natural history and news programmes.

BBC Television's older sister service - BBC Radio - celebrates 80 years of great television and musical moments with the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Gavin Sutherland.

And "great moments" a-plenty there were, indeed!

We adore the spectacle of one of the best orchestras in Britain in full swing - all the intricacies of the plucks, toots and tinkles that make up the greater whole of every piece of orchestration laid out before us; all the running around (especially in the percussion section at the back), the swapping of instruments mid-flow, the tiny pieces being played on one instrument after another, even for the briefest of moments - and they certainly did us proud yet again, as they took the audience on a trip down memory lane. Among the many TV themes they played:

Vision On ("Gallery" theme; aka Left Bank Two):

Vision On "Gallery" theme

Doctor Who [unfortunately on this occasion without either Matt Smith or the monsters]:

Doctor Who theme

Ski Sunday:

Ski Sunday theme

The Sky at Night (Sibelius: At The Castle Gate):

The Sky at Night theme

Grandstand:

Grandstand theme

Inspector Morse:

Inspector Morse theme

Quatermass (Holst: Mars, Bringer of War from The Planet Suite):

Quatermass (Holst: Mars, Bringer of War from The Planet Suite)

One of my favourites [in every way] - Brideshead Revisited:

Brideshead Revisited

...and many, many more (including medleys from classic comedy shows like Morecambe & Wise, Two Ronnies, Terry and June, Are You Being Served, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Last of the Summer Wine, Monty Python and the rest, American cop shows and current affairs programmes and documentaries such as The Blue Planet, themes from popular recent successes Strictly Come Dancing and Poldark, and some from very old classics such as Dr Finlay and Maigret)!

We had a fabulous time...

Friday Night is Music Night, the world's longest-running live orchestral music programme on radio.

Nobody Does It Like Them

It was Friday Night is Music Night on Wednesday night! Confusing though that sounds, Madam Arcati and I were overjoyed once again to get tickets in the BBC draw to be in the audience for a recording of Radio 2's longest-running music show (and, indeed the world's longest-running orchestral music programme on radio) - and all of it in celebration of the composer of many a fave choon here at Dolores Delargo Towers - Mr Cy Coleman!

As I said in my recent blog for the man's birthday, Cy "wrote a whole raft of our favourites from the Great American Songbook - not only those in one of my fave musicals 'Sweet Charity'". His music was beloved of legends such as Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Shirley Bassey and Tony Bennett, and he won five Tony Awards, two Grammys and three Emmys. No wonder the Beeb finds him worth celebrating.

And what a celebration!

In the exemplary company of the BBC Concert Orchestra (conducted by Mike Reed), and hosted by long-serving TV hostess (and former "action woman") Anneka Rice, the evening covered all aspects of Mr Coleman's career, from his time as a jobbing composer mainly working with lyricist Carolyn Leigh out of the legendary Brill Building, to notable Broadway success with writers such as Dorothy Fields, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, to his later success with Barnum and City of Angels. The orchestra, and chorus Capital Voices, indeed had great fun romping through some of his "big music" numbers, not least Come Follow The Band, Hey, Look Me Over, Join the Circus, Big Spender and The Rhythm Of Life.



The lead singers included the gorgeous Michael Xavier (who we have seen on stage many times - as "Miss Great Plains" in the faboo drag-queen-talent-competition-musical Pageant at The Vaudeville Theatre in 2000; in 2008 playing Rock Hudson in Rock at the Oval House Theatre; at the Friday Night is Music Night West Side Story special in 2007; and as "The Wolf / Cinderella's Prince" in 2010 in Into The Woods at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) who sang some splendid solos - including Sinatra's favourite Cy Coleman tune, Witchcraft and the standard It's Not Where You Start (It's Where You Finish) - as well as providing a remarkably harmonic backbone to the ensemble numbers.

Here he is in that aforementioned Into The Woods production, duetting with Simon Thomas on Agony:

Into the Woods: Agony

Mr Xavier also duetted with the other male lead on Wednesday evening Mr Tam Mutu (Les Misérables; Love Never Dies; Dr Zhivago) on You're Nothing Without Me (from City of Angels) - Mr Mutu's "showstopper", however, was his brilliant The Best Is Yet To Come.

Miss Siobhan Dillon, a contender on the reality show How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and West End starlet [and real-life girlfriend of Mr Mutu, as Miss Rice revealed] really let loose on the Shirley MacLaine numbers If My Friends Could See Me Now and I'm a Brass Band, as well as a rather fab version of Lost and Found (from City of Angels; lyrics by David Zippel: "If you're not celibate, we could raise hell a bit"). She also did a rather touching duet with Mr Mutu on The Colours of My Life (from Barnum), as well as with Mr Xavier on I Like Your Style from the same show.

Swansea's finest Miss Ria Jones, however, got all the campest showbiz numbers - as she should do, being the understudy who triumphally stole the show in Sunset Boulevard when leading lady Glenn Close went off sick [in fact Ria created the role way back in 1991]; she also starred in Evita, Chess, Les Mis and Victor/Victoria [and she is the sister of famed drag queen Ceri Dupree] - such as Nobody Does It Like Me, Hey, Look Me Over, Big Spender and You Can Always Count On Me (again from City of Angels), as well as the lovely love song (made famous by Blossom Dearie) I Walk A Little Faster.

Here's a mere snippet of Miss Jones' talents:

Ria Jones - As If We Never Said Goodbye

In its entirety - "re-takes" and all - this was another wonderful night out at the glorious Hackney Empire, which we enjoyed immensely. I wonder when it will be broadcast?

Friday Night is Music Night on the BBC.

A fanfare, Dear Old Ivor, the rumbling Mississippi and Totty of the Day

It's a miserable, wet Sunday [lord knows how those hundreds of people who booked places at the "Patrons' Picnic" today on The Mall must be feeling; soggy I expect], so what more appropriate way to brighten the day than a selection of the array of talent we saw on stage at the Hackney Empire for the Queen's Birthday special live edition of Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night?


Julian appeared as Charles Blake in "Downton Abbey", and was also naked on stage in the gay play "My Night With Reg".

First up, a new "Totty of the Day", the rather gorgeous Julian Ovenden [who wore a most flattering suit on stage; from three rows back in the stalls we could admire his - ahem! - prominent talents...] - here live at the Proms:

Julian Ovenden - Younger than Springtime

"Top of the bill" was Sir Willard White [whose bass-baritone voice, even in his seventieth year, is utterly incredible]:

Willard White - Ol' Man River

...and also on stage was the lovely soprano Sarah Fox [whose renditions of Ivor Novello were the sweetest we've heard]:

Sarah Fox - Can't Help Singing

With the BBC Concert Orchestra at its very best, and the added treat of the [gay fantasy-uniformed] Fanfare Trumpet team of the RAF College, it was a really great night's entertainment!

Friday Night is Music Night on the BBC.

The man who made Miss Marple "hip"

I always love watching an orchestra at play; the dynamics of how each section works - the elegance of the synchronised string section, the "gadgetry" employed by the tympani just to elicit the right tinkling noise at the right time, the baffling variety of tubular things that can be included in woodwind and brass - and with a wonderful auditorium such as the Mermaid Theatre, a moderate space with its tiered seats never seeming too far from the stage, this opportunity is offered in abundance. [This is in contrast to the glittering St John's Smith Square, where we were on Saturday, whereby the audience and the orchestra are almost at the same level.]

So (again - we have been successful several times: see here, here, here, here and here), I was thrilled when I won free tickets in the BBC's "be in the audience" draw, to go along to the Mermaid last night to watch the BBC Concert Orchestra in a recording for the world's longest-running music programme, Radio 2's marvellous Friday Night is Music Night!

To remain with the "compare and contrast" between two ostensibly "classical" evenings, there is a vast and uncrossable chasm in most people's minds between the glories of Bach and Wagner and the movie-theme-dominated repertoire of Mr Ron Goodwin, but - as is my wont - I like both, so was hardly disappointed that the whole of last night's show was a dedication to the Plymouth-born composer.

Mr Goodwin worked on more than 70 film scores during his career, but his contribution to musical history was even wider than that - including Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren's immortal Goodness, Gracious Me!, orchestrations for hits by Petula Clark and Jimmy Young, jazz, swing and the critically acclaimed orchestral works (for his home town) the Drake 400 Suite and Armada Suite.

It was primarily the movie music that we were treated to last night, however. All beautifully and skilfully done (as if we could expect anything less from the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Gavin Sutherland, with lead violinist Rebecca Turner), some of the highlights included:

Theme from Whirlpool

The brilliantly "hip" music for Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple:

Miss Marple theme

Music from the 1964 Kim Novak/Laurence Harvey film of Maugham's Of Human Bondage:

Of Human Bondage

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines

And, keeping up the "flying" theme (Mr Goodwin wrote for many a war film including Where Eagles Dare and Force 10 from Navarone) - 633 Squadron:

633 Squadron

It was an enthralling and thoroughly enjoyable evening. Shame the programme itself isn't scheduled to be broadcast on Radio 2 until March 2015 (to mark Ron Goodwin's 90th anniversary), so you'll have to wait to hear me clapping!

Friday Night Is Music Night on the BBC website.

Ronald Alfred Goodwin (17th February 1925 – 8th January 2003)

Friday Night on Sunday

We secured free tickets once again to be in the audience for a recording of Friday Night is Music Night last Friday. This time, it was a special programme presented by Ken Bruce, who had been given a free rein with the music of his choice - and once again it was a marvellous and varied evening's entertainment, including radio show themes, Celtic music and even a full orchestration of Riverdance, all played brilliantly by the BBC Concert Orchestra. Well worth paying the licence fee for!

The programme has been going in its regular slot for for half a century - first of all on the Light Programme and then on BBC Radio 2, which makes it the world's longest-running "live music" programme on radio - and the music is singularly in the "lighter" end of the spectrum. Perfect, in fact, for what we at Dolores Delargo Towers refer to as "Sunday Music".

And so to that end let us finish this Sunday with some...

Our vocalists on Friday included Emma Kershaw, who was one of the stars of the concert version of the musical Chess, and among her other credits are "Fantine" in Les Miserables (1993) and "The Baker's Wife" in Into the Woods (1997), and backing vocals for Celine Dion, Chaka Khan, Annie Lennox, The Bee Gees, Lionel Richie, Will Young and Robbie Williams.

She has a most beautiful jazzy voice, and on Friday tackled favourites like Cabaret as well as duetting with our other lead Gary Williams on such standards as Baby It's Cold Outside. Here's the lady herself in concert with the Finnish Lahti Sinfonia Orchestra, also led by our conductor on Friday Roderick Dunk...

Emma Kershaw with the Lahti Sinfonia - Swinging Broadway

Gary Williams, described by one reviewer as "one of the most experienced Sinatra acolytes", was star of the West End’s Rat Pack (which we went to see way back in 2003) and is soloist with leading big bands and concert orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, the BBC Big Band, Ireland’s RTE and the Lahti Sinfonia Finland.

As well as Sinatra, he also sang Matt Monro’s My Kinda Girl and Why Shouldn’t I?, among others. Here he is in a recent concert performance:

Gary Williams live at Pizza Express Jazz Club

Excellent stuff for winding down a weekend...

At the moment on replay on the Friday Night is Music Night page is their broadcast of the fantabulosa Pink Martini in Concert. This week's broadcast is the celebration of Desert Island Discs that John-John and I went to the recording of back in May.

Last Friday's show will apparently be broadcast on 25th November 2011 - and I shall be listening!

To reach ... the unreachable stars

What do all of these fabulous and talented people have in common?



Kirsty Young, Sheila Hancock, Ronnie Corbett, Maureen Lipman, Paul Gambaccini, Julian Lloyd-Webber, Kerry Ellis, Courtney Pine, Ann Widdicombe, James Pearson, Matt Lucas and Alfie Boe were all on stage at The Mermaid Theatre last night! John-John and I knew we were in for a treat at the live recording of the world's longest-running orchestral live music programme on radio Friday Night Is Music Night, as it hosted a celebration of another BBC gem and the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio, Desert Island Discs - but nothing quite prepared us for this cavalcade of stars...

In addition to the esteemed coterie of famous names above (all in the audience waiting their turn to take the stage), we also spotted Nicholas Parsons two rows away, and in front of him Celia Imrie. We were sat next to Jo Brand, for heaven's sake!



I bumped into Alan Yentob while outside having a fag, and there were many more familiar faces dotted around that I couldn't name (but not Ryan Giggs, surprisingly). But enough about the audience - on with the show!

The BBC Concert Orchestra opened with the famous Desert Island Discs theme tune The Sleepy Lagoon by Eric Coates (and they provided the magnificent music behind all the performances of the evening). Kirsty Young was mistress of ceremonies, and gave us a little insight into the show's long and esteemed history from its beginnings in 1942, and how it felt for her to be at its helm today, in the shadow of its founder and presenter the late Roy Plumley (and his successors Michael Parkinson and Sue Lawley).

Eric Coates plays Eric Coates - Sleepy Lagoon

Kerry Ellis sang (brilliantly, I might add) one of the "top 5" requested songs by Desert Island Discs guests over the years, Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, and later returned to perform Rock-a-Bye My Baby (the former made famous by Liza, the latter by mum Judy).

Sheila Hancock reminisced about having been a guest twice (very rare for the programme) and how furious her late husband John Thaw was as she was asked to go on the show before him - but they shared a favourite tune in Elgar's Cello Concerto, which was then superbly played by Mr Lloyd-Webber. It's one of my favourite pieces, too. I could hardly breathe!

Julian Lloyd-Webber - Elgar - Cello Concerto

Maureen Lipman, after a few anecdotes about her time as a guest, sang two songs from her repertoire of Joyce Grenfell songs, Three Brothers and Stately As A Galleon. Paul Gambaccini introduced a song that reminds him of his home city New York, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, masterfully played by musical director at Ronnie Scott's Club James Pearson. Ann Widdicombe came on stage as (bizarrely) the only guest ever to choose a sound effect as one of her discs - the sound of hippos calling to each other in the African bush...

Amazingly (and only the BBC would dare to do this), "Doris Karloff" was followed by a brilliant live appearance by the maestro of the modern jazz saxophone Courtney Pine, who exploded into the most incredible high-speed, high-energy version of Anita Baker's Sweet Love, which had the audience applauding the roof off!

Ronnie Corbett was hilarious - as always - with his remarkable anecdotes and was deliciously flirtatious with Miss Young, as he proceeded to sing(!) Madam I Love Your Crepe Suzette (from Du Barry Was a Lady) as a serenade. It was a delight to see such a "national treasure" (in Miss Young's words) live on stage!

After another of the most-selected musical choices on Desert Island Discs, John Barry's superb theme from Schindler's List, the show wound to its conclusion with more surprises! We were expecting our neighbour Jo Brand to appear (as was advertised), but it seems she left at half time. Our final act was instead the lovely Matt Lucas, singing(!) Lullaby Of Broadway, and then duetting with none other than the superbly talented tenor Mr Alfie Boe (who is apparently a close friend of Mr Lucas) on The Impossible Dream.

A fitting end to a wonderful evening!

Friday Night Is Music Night

The bearable lightness of being

We had a lovely time at the live recording of Friday Night is Music Night -Tribute to the Soaps last night!

This show is Radio 2's longest running programme, and is one of the last bastions of "light orchestral" music left on mainstream radio (now that Radio 3 has got rid of its Light Music Show). Last night was an especially great occasion, as we welcomed none other than Tony Hatch (a master of that particular musical genre, and composer of a myriad of songs for the likes of Petula Clark and Matt Munro) to conduct the BBC Concert Orchestra with arrangements of his great themes for such classic TV series as Emmerdale, Crossroads and Neighbours.

His spot, however, was merely the star turn of the evening's entertainment. The whole two hour show was dedicated to the creators of this gentle art, such as Eric Coates (who composed music for Mrs Dale's Diary, as well his more famous Desert Island Discs theme and Dambusters' March), Arthur Wood (who wrote the tune Barwick Green, better known as the theme from The Archers), and Robert Farnon (famous for writing the themes to The Prisoner and Colditz, as well as his medley of British TV themes they played last night, Sounds Familiar). We also had the themes from Doctors Kildare and Finlay, plus (of course) Eastenders.

Not wanting to seem too parochially British, the orchestra also tacked versions of the themes from Dallas and Dynasty, but it was the UK that provided the majority of the inspiration. We had songs performed by stars of British soaps, Richard Shelton (aka murderous Dr Forsythe in Emmerdale) and Wendi Peters (better known as "Cilla Battersby" from Corrie).

In a nod to the 50th anniversary of our nation's longest-running and possibly best-loved soap Coronation Street, we were impressed by a selection of songs from the new Corrie musical Rogues, Angels, Heroes & Fools. The talented young cast performed some pithy little numbers based upon some of the Street's most famous scenes, including Ena Sharples' first appearance in episode 1 back in 1960, through the troubles of Elsie Tanner's family and Annie Walker's reign in The Rovers, to (the hilarious) Stan and Hilda Ogden's second honeymoon, and up-to-date with Elsie singing from the grave to Becky McDonald.

But best of all was when "Curly Watts" (none other than Kevin Kennedy in person) came on to sing a very poignant little number about the time he bought a star and named it in honour of his bride-to-be Raquel - just before she told him she was not going to marry him after all... Sad, but brilliantly done!

Buy the album

In all, a superb evening of entertainment, and a great pick-me-up - all for free! As host Ken Bruce said, "It comes with the licence fee!"

We loved it!

Eric Coates - Springtime Suite - Dance in the Twilight (Mrs Dale's Diary)

Arthur Wood - Barwick Green (The Archers)

Tony Hatch - Crossroads theme

Friday Night is Music Night

Just visit the BBC Shows website and choose the show you'd like to see. If seats are available, that's it, you're in! Simple.

The Boys, the Boys...

We went to see a live recording of Radio 2 Friday Night is Music Night "starring" John Barrowman last night. As you might imagine, with the current popularity of the multi-talented Mr Barrowman (Torchwood, reality TV contests and current "fruit and nuts" controversy), the queue was a round the block at the Mermaid Theatre, as hundreds of people had also applied for free tickets from the BBC website.

Unfortunately the lovely John had a throat infection and couldn't sing (nor did he get his nuts out - boo!)



So a hastily-gathered selection of "friends" from various West End shows performed the evening's repertoire instead. No bad thing, as the assembled company are quite a talented bunch (if obviously under-rehearsed in the circumstances).

A couple of the players were familiar - the lovely Daniel Boys (currently in Avenue Q, and who starred in a recent Cosmo centrefold) and Sally-Ann Triplett (who we've seen on stage in Acorn Antiques the Musical and other shows) among them - but others were new to us, including Shona Lindsay (formerly in Phantom), Matt Rawle (currently in Zorro) and the very cute Peter Grant, an accomplished jazz/lounge artist whose Matt Monro covers made us really sit up and take notice...

Altogether, given the circumstances they put on a great show even without the uber-professional John Barrowman, who had evidently chosen his own favourite numbers to perform (which left the others slightly in the deep end musically, as they were not always the songs that suited their own repertoire).

A fabulous (free) evening's entertainment nonetheless!



Here's an example of the boys' (singing) talents...

Peter Grant - Traditional

John Barrowman and Daniel Boys - I Know Him So Well

Matt Rawle in Zorro

Friday Night is Music Night

The little girl with the powerful voice

Friday Night is Music Night on BBC Radio 2 tonight is dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the musical West Side Story.

Leonard Bernstein's masterpiece, based upon the Shakespeare love story Romeo & Juliet, was a ground-breaking "modern" interpretation, radical in its day and remains an all-time classic. With lyrics by a young Stephen Sondheim, everyone still loves such timeless songs as Tonight Tonight, Maria and America.

On Monday we went to the Mermaid Theatre in Blackfriars to see the BBC live recording. Wow! What an experience. I have not been quite so close to an orchestra before, which was fascinating in itself, as they seemingly effortlessly battled through the incredible complexities of Bernstein's music. A whirl of violin bows, brass, flutes and cymbals.



But the real surprise was the singers. The chorus was fab (the sassy ensemble Capital Voices), and soloists such as Jacinta Whyte and Jon-Paul Hevey were great. But the true stars were gorgeous tenor Michael Xavier, playing Tony, and as Maria the New Zealand soprano Hayley Westenra.

Looking about twelve years old, this teeny tiny figure has an incredibly deceptive voice. And when the two leads duetted together on the lovely ballads from the show like Tonight and One Hand, One Heart, the theatre audience was completely stunned by the emotion conveyed. Could such a small person sing so powerfully?

Who would have thought I would suddenly become a Hayley Westenra fan?

Don't miss the show on Radio 2 tonight at 7.30pm, or you can listen again after tonight's broadcast for one week: Friday Night is Music Night page.

You might even hear me cough...

Hayley Westenra on MySpace